Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982
Ratings183
Average rating4.1
In a small, tidy apartment on the outskirts of the frenzied metropolis of Seoul, Kim Jiyoung--a millennial "everywoman"--spends her days caring for her infant daughter. Her husband, however, worries over a strange symptom that has recently appeared: Jiyoung has begun to impersonate the voices of other women--dead and alive, both known and unknown to her. Truly, flawlessly, completely, she became that very person. As she plunges deeper into this psychosis, Jiyoung's concerned husband sends her to a psychiatrist, who listens to her narrate her own life story--from her birth to a family who expected a son, to elementary school teachers who policed girls' outfits, to male coworkers who installed hidden cameras in women's restrooms and posted the photos online. But can her doctor cure her, or even discover what truly ails her? Rendered in eerie prose, Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 announces the arrival of a major international writer.
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This book made me both mad and sad, but mostly mad. In a good way though!
I love that it's fiction but also kind of non-fiction (the author interweaves some statistics throughout the book), and I absolutely love that it's feminist. It's a pretty short book so I think it would also make for a good book club kind of book.
4.5/5
The world had changed a great deal, but the little rules, contracts, and customs had not, which meant the world hadn't actually changed at all.
What a harrowing book. I don't know whether I am sadder or angrier at how unfair this world we live in is towards women, especially in certain countries like Korea. The film adaptation of this was good, but this book hits even harder. That there was a point when “checking the sex of the fetus and aborting females was common practice, as if ‘daughter' was a medical problem.” .........really sickening.
